The European Union makes available ten million euro for research into robots in the agricultural sector. Wageningen UR Greenhouse Horticulture will be coordinating this project in which scientific institutions and industries from ten countries are participating. The Dutch input involves the development of a harvest robot for sweet pepper.
The project has been named CROPS and is focusing on the development of intelligent systems for deployment in the production and harvest of high-value crops. “Robots can contribute to a sustainable development of agriculture and horticulture,” explains Jan Bontsema, scientist and coordinator of this project. “One can think of aspects such as improvement of the labour conditions or increasing the quality of the harvested product.”
CROPS focuses on the development a new techniques for sensors, robot arms, grippers and intelligence, to be deployed in various applications. Bontsema: “We will be developing fundamental knowledge as well as practical applications. In the Netherlands we will be cooperating closely with Jentjens Machinetechniek in jointly developing a sweet pepper harvester. In the other countries several partners will be working on an apple picking robot, a machine for selective grape harvesting for premium wines, and precision spraying equipment for apple orchards. Equipment for detecting obstacles will be developed for use in forestry. In doing so, the partners will always be benefiting from each other’s knowledge and the objective is that the industry will be giving the technique a broader availability for incorporation into equipment for different applications.”
The subsidy which the project receives, comes under the theme ‘nanotechnology’ of the section ´Cooperation´ of the Seventh Framework Programme. KP7 is a large subsidy programme of the European Union, running from 2007 through to 2013. Under the section ´Cooperation´ the European Union is asking knowledge institutions and industries to formulate projects with the objective to stimulate international cooperation between companies and scientific institutions, inside and outside Europe. Science and industry are challenged to devise solutions for major European problems, e.g., in the field of the environment, ageing, sustainable energy, and public health. The projects should contribute to the realisation of European policies covering subjects such as the environment, climate and food security, and should reinforce the competitive strength of the European industry. The KP7 programme is running trough to 2013.